So, Captain America: The Winter Soldier is out – the direct sequel to Captain America and pretty much a sequel to The Avengers (all these movies are tied together but this one is closer to Avengers than Thor and Iron Man). And it’s good – dare I say it’s great? Well, I didn’t think it was great but everyone else seems to be loving it so maybe I was just being a grumpy gus?

The movie is part superhero action and part shadowy conspiracy thriller and it has Robert Redford (who starred in a few of those himself in the 70s) to prove it.

So it’s Captain America, Black Widow (Scarlett Johansen… mmmm), Falcon (rent-a-Iron-Man played by Anthony Mackie), and Nick Fury (Sam Jackson) against various shady organizations in a conspiracy plot that’s a lot more twisty and turny than I’d have given it credit for going in. What happen in this flick kind of turns the previous Marvel flicks on their heads and changes the course (in theory) of future movies so this is definitely one to see for continuity. Also, it’s a darker, slightly more violent superhero flick than Marvell and Disney usually put out with greater stakes – it has a message and theme about modern America that’s pretty upfront without being overly preachy. I appreciated that ambition and that daring to take a stand for a multi-million dollar franchise that really only needs to put out gee-whiz-bang action flicks to rake in some cash money.

The action is well-paced and looks great – there’s a lot of practical visual FX and stunt work going on here and certainly a lot of CGI work… and it’s very successful and blending the two. It’s a great looking movie in this regard. I guess an ultimate problem that keeps me from loving the movie is probably that, while the stakes are high, I never felt a tension that Captain America and his team weren’t going to fail. Sure, there’s some major repercussions,  but those were not specifically driving the action.

Also, and this danced on the edge of spoilers, there’s an issue with Captain America’s reaction to a certain fleet he’s introduced to early in the movie. Since he’s already suspicious (being a square-jawed, simple soldiers from a simpler time), there’s a lack of surprise and betrayal that could have otherwise given the movie a nice mid-point drama and raised the stakes. But since our hero was already THERE, all that mid-point turn did was confirm what he already knew to be true. This doesn’t for good dramatic stakes make.

There’s also an issue with The Winter Soldier storyline in the movie. There’s two main stories  here – a conspiracy story with  global implications  and a more personal story for Captain America  involving  the shadowy assassin,  The Winter Soldier. They could have removed The Winter Soldier from the movie completely and had the exact same movie. It’s a real problem structurally and since his nature is to the shadowy, the bad guy only appears in a handful of scenes to be bad-ass and mysterious and shadowy. It’s a good story that’s being told thematically for Steve Rogers (aka Cap) and it works on some level, but ultimately it’s just there to be a tease for Captain America 3. Presumably that movie will be a more direct storyline that explores the dynamics between these two characters… but that just means this movie was a placeholder for that movie.

But back to the good parts.

Scarlett Johansen’s Black Widow continues to be great and one hopes that they’ll actually, you know, give her her own movie. She interacts well with Captain America. Her dark background and apparent ability to do things square-jawed heroic Captain America won’t do make them a fun superhero pairing. Plus, it’s got to be said, ScarJo is always worth watching on screen… even if they don’t pour her into that ridiculous (but not unwelcome) catsuit for every single scene.

Chris Evans as Steve Rogers is probably as good a Captain America as you can get. He’s solid brick of a man (muscles without looking like a body builder) and manages to pull of the requisite square-jawed hero thing without seeming corny or ever looking like he’s going to say “gee whiz” or something corny.

Anthony Mackie is Falcon, a character I’m not familiar with as I’m not a big comic book guy. To me, he seemed like the guy you get when Iron Man doesn’t show up. His special ability is a pair of flying wings / rocket pack which makes for some solid action scenes but since Iron Man could fly rings around him (and then shoot him with a repulsor beam or a rocket), he seems like the B Team. Anthony Mackie though is charismatic and fun in the part and there’s suggestion he’ll be in a sequel (or possibly the next Avengers?) so maybe he can Hawkeye can hang out being unremarkable.

Samuel L. Jackson has a meatier part as Nick Fury than he usually has in these stand-alone, non-Avengers movies (which is partly why I suggested above that this is kind of an Avengers 2).

So, yeah, it’s a good flick. Apparently you’ll like it more than me but it’s not like I hated it. Solid action, good looking heroes doing heroic things, saving America and the world. It’s a good bit of entertainment and a whole lot better than the “only ok” Thor: The Dark World (but not, on par in my estimation, as Iron Man 3).

Score: 85